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Photo of the Day: Open this door!

From New-Old

Stone Town, Zanzibar

Labels: photographs, pictures, Zanzibar

best way to roast a little treat. . .

Labels: Guatamala, photographs, pictures, Volcan Pacaya

Photo of the Day: Bejing

From Bejing

not a great picture, but just love the lines and colors on the roofs there.

Labels: China, photographs, pictures

Photo of the Day: Petra, Jordan

From Petra

Labels: Jordan, photographs, pictures

Picture of the Week: Bullfight in Columbia

From Bullfighting in Medellin

Sorry about the quality of this picture. This was early on my trip and I really had no idea how to work my camera. On this one, the bullfight was inside at night with poor lighting and that's why it looks so off.

In another fit of travel luck, we ran into a local Columbian lawyer who was a huge bullfight fan. He took us under his wing for the entire evening, including the post-fight party, and instructed us on the ins and outs of bullfighter.

This guy was the top ranked bullfighter in the world. He was fantastic fighter, but got a little close to this energetic bull and almost got gored. This pic looks like he's gotten the horns, but in fact he was riding on the bull's head and holding on to the horns to avoid getting gored. He threw himself off after about 10 seconds. It was wild.

Labels: Columbia, photographs, pictures

Photo of the Day: Damascus

From Damascus

I really, really liked Syria. Looking forward to a solid 4-5 months solely in the Middle East in the next few years. Now, if I can just get an Irish passport to make the Iran trip easier. . .

Labels: Damascus, photographs, pictures, syria

Photo of the Day: San Blas Islands, Panama

From San Blas islands

there were some really nice cloud/sunset looks on these islands. Problem was -- early in my trip, before I really knew how to use my camera (not that I'm any sort of expert now).

Labels: Panama, photographs, pictures

Photo of the Day: Zanibar

From Stone Town

I loved walking around Stone Town and taking pictures of the great doors there. Occasionally a nice local was willing to pose in front of one for me

Labels: photographs, pictures, Stone Town, Zanzibar

picture of the day - Zanzibar

Walking down the beach with my little point-and-shoot and ran into these kids. Asked if I could take their picture. I just figured they'd stand there nicely and smile.

As I pulled my camera out of my pocket, they started dancing. It was really cute. And I think the pic is pretty good

Labels: photographs, pictures, Zanzibar

Some pics from Angkor Wat

really slow uploads here, but am going to try to get 2-3 pics up here now.

Labels: Angkor Wat, photographs, pictures

Playtime and Pictures

This afternoon, I was watching some kids run around and play in the way that only small children can – without care, without thought, without worry.

It reminded me of conversations that I have had with my married-with-children friends about how much they enjoy rolling around and playing with their kids (when they aren’t whining, crying and otherwise doing what they can to destroy what little sanity we all have left by mid-life).

Although I believe that we all think we can still play like children, especially when we actually are playing with our own kids, I just think that we are fooling ourselves. Even when you are running around chasing your kids around the house, or playing hide and seek or rolling in the freshly cut grass, the true reality is that we are all adults. With responsibilities. Bills. Mortgages. Jobs (well, most of us).

I think we all like to think that being around kids brings the kid back out in us, but its part-reality, part-mirage. The reality is that being around carefree kids invariably makes you smile and feel better about things – its hard not to be a little contagious. That part is not to be ignored. Hell, I feel it, and I don’t have any kids of my own. . . that I know of.

What I was wondering today, while watching these particular kids play was what I did in my life that most closely approximated ‘play.’

Well, I thought that and also thought that if I was back in the U.S. watching kids play in a park like I was that my danger-obsessed/constant-crisis/fear-driven fellow Americans would have probably called the cops.

For me, the closest I think I come to ‘playing’ is photography. Its certainly not ‘play’ in any typical sense of the world, but I think on those days when I just wander around, almost aimlessly, taking pictures of people and things, it is as close as I get these days to being mindless.

Mindless in the best sense of the word.

So in the honor of the playing children and the European parents that didn’t freak out and call the police, I thought I would post my favorite pictures from this trip, so far. I’ve taken thousands upon thousands, but I’m going to scroll through for an hour or so and choose out some of the ones I like the best. If you aren’t aware, I post a lot of them on Facebook and I have tried to keep up posting them also at Picasweb. My address there is www.picasweb.mobilelawyer.com.

I am going to make myself a coffee table book at the end of the trip with my best pictures. If you see some that you think need to go in it, I’d love your input via comment here or email.

Thanks,
Michael

p.s. Side note that may only be amusing to me. I just sat down in a café in Berlin to write this blog, ordered a glass of red wine, and when the waitress asked me if I would like to see a menu said: “That’s OK. You just choose something for me.”

“I’m sorry?”
“I’m not picky. Whatever you think is good here will be fine with me.”
“Really? Me? Choose?”
“Yep. That would be great.”

I’d like to say that I do that – which I do occasionally, when in a good mood – because it is a good way to get is whatever is the best dish. In reality, I think I mostly do it to see the expression on the waiter/waitresses face.

Without further ado, some of my favorite pictures, so far, on this trip:

starting with the one I think is my favorite so far